Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. opposition leader Ed Miliband
said Prime Minister David Cameron’s strategy on the European
Union is “incredibly dangerous” as pressure for the government
to renegotiate its membership terms intensifies.

“He is essentially sleepwalking us toward the exit door
from the EU,” Miliband, the Labour party leader, said on BBC
Television’s “Andrew Marr Show” yesterday. “It’s incredibly
dangerous.”

Cameron, who is set to make a key speech on the U.K.’s
relationship with Europe later this month, is under pressure
from some members of his Conservative party to call a referendum
on pulling out of the EU. The government’s language on Europe
has hardened in recent days, with Chancellor of the Exchequer
George Osborne telling Germany’s Die Welt newspaper on Jan. 11
that the 27-nation bloc will need to change if Britain is to
remain a member.

Lawmakers from Fresh Start, a group of euroskeptic
Conservative members of parliament, will call for EU treaty
changes to help reset a range of powers covering crime, justice
and policing, the Sunday Telegraph said yesterday, citing a copy
of a report to be published later this week.

A ComRes poll commissioned by the Sunday People newspaper,
published yesterday, showed the U.K. Independence party, which
seeks Britain’s exit from the EU, gaining 23 percent support,
more than double the share of the vote they received in 2009.
The Conservative Party trails with 22 percent and Labour remains
in the lead with 35 percent.

‘Incredible Gamble’

While 63 percent of Britons favor a referendum, support for
outright withdrawal fell to 33 percent, according to the online
poll of 2,059 people from Dec. 19 to Dec. 21.

“The last thing we should do is start to say that at some
date in five or six, seven years hence let’s decide now to have
an in-out referendum,” Miliband said. “That’s an incredible
gamble.”

The U.K. shouldn’t commit to or promise a referendum on the
EU, he said.

Philip Gordon, assistant secretary of state for European
Affairs in President Barack Obama’s administration, last week
warned Britain against a referendum, saying the U.K. staying in
the EU is important to U.S. interests.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, a member
of the coalition government’s Liberal Democrat party, told Sky
News yesterday that “Britain should continue to be a leading
member of the EU.” Still, he acknowledged that he couldn’t see
Britain “joining the euro in the foreseeable future, if ever.”

Tax Avoidance

Separately, Miliband said a Labour government would crack
down on tax avoidance by profitable companies.

“We’ll end the tax secrecy” where companies “can get
away with making big profits and with no reason at all, no
justification, not pay any tax,” he said. “We cannot have a
situation where companies feel they can get away with not paying
their fair share.”

The Treasury said last month it has closed a loophole in
the corporate tax system that allows companies to deduct certain
types of expenses from profit. The move followed a parliamentary
hearing in November in which executives from Starbucks Corp.,
Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. were criticized for using
complex accounting methods to reduce their tax liabilities in
the U.K.

“We’ve got to look at the rules on how companies can
distribute their profits,” Miliband said. “Other countries
like Denmark have much tougher rules.”